Victorious: The Impossible Path to Peace

By Deann Alford

Vicious hate. Deadly reprisal. What can break through? A compelling narrative tracing decades of conflict in a land oft-named among the world's worst.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ransom Press International
• Release date: Nov 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9781647650636

Book preview

Victorious:

The Impossible Path to Peace

By Deann Alford

Copyright 2021 by Deann Alford

www.deannalfordwriter.com

Second edition November 2021

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without written permission from the publisher.

Scripture marked NIV is taken from the

New International Version.

Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.

Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NKJV is taken from the New King James Version.

Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover design by Esther Landers, Next Door Digital—www.nextdoordigital.media

Edited by Michelle Rayburn—www.missionandmedia.com

Layout by Martha Jaramillo R.

Photo credits, all copyright of the following:

Front cover: Soldier, cocaine bundles and machine gun, Shutterstock;

Chet Bitterman headstone, parachute with Bible, by Deann Alford.

Back cover: Russell Martin Stendal with Colombian Army soldiers,

Albert Luepnitz praying for retired Colombian Army officer by Deann Alford.

Deann Alford interviewing FARC leaders by Alethia Stendal.

Photos of ransom letters by Ray Rising.

Printed in the United States of America

Ransom Press International

4918 Roosevelt Street

Hollywood, FL, 33021

http://ransompressinternational.com/contact-us/

Paperback: 978-1-64765-062-9

Digital: 978-1-64765-063-6

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Dean Alford Writer Website OR Code

For Doug, of course

* * *

Follow Deann Alford

On Deann's website

http://www.deannalfordwriter.com

Dean Alford Writer Website OR Code

On Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/deannalfordwriter

Dean Alford Writer Facebook OR Code

On Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/deannalfordwriter

Dean Alford Writer Facebook OR Code

On Twitter

https://twitter.com/DeannAlford

Dean Alford Twitter OR Code

On Amazon

https://amzn.to/1jrs8Ds

Dean Alford Amazon OR Code

Stay current on the ministry of Russell Martin Stendal through updates from his partner organization Spirit of Martyrdom at:

www.spiritofmartyrdom.com/latin/

SOM Latin OR Code

His books are available through his publishing arm Ransom Press International at:

www.ransompressinternational.com

RPI OR Code

For more information about the Bibles for Venezuela project, visit the SOM website at:

www.biblesforvenezuela.com

Bibles for Venezuela OR Code

Table of Contents

Endorsements

Follow Deann

Chapter 1

Lunch With the FARC

Chapter 2

Hargrove

Chapter 3

The Baptist and the Priest

Chapter 4

Father Rafael and the Ransomed Evangelical Missionary

Chapter 5

Rush Hour, Prime Time, and Prayer

Chapter 6

Ray Rising

Chapter 7

Bellavista

Chapter 8

Daniel

Chapter 9

Cellblocks

Chapter 10

Prison Radio

Chapter 11

Norberto

Chapter 12

Medellín

Chapter 13

Sumapaz

Chapter 14

George the Pirate

Chapter 15

Junk

Chapter 16

Forgiveness

Chapter 17

The Widow’s Prophetic Word

Chapter 18

In the Paramilitary Cellblock

Chapter 19

María of the 26th FARC

Chapter 20

Healing Prayer for the FARC

Chapter 21

The Dawn Treader

Chapter 22

Don Iván Márquez

Chapter 23

Romaña

Chapter 24

Guerrillas on the Boat

Chapter 25

Santrich

Chapter 26

Albert Goes to Venezuela

Chapter 27

Matthew 5:44

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Selected Bibliography

Endnotes

About the Author

About Ransom Press International

How to Navigate our eBooks

What people are saying about

Victorious: The Impossible Path to Peace

"Persecuted Christians tell me the Christian life is more about endurance than victory, but they acknowledge the needed encouragement victories bring. Perhaps that’s the real beauty of Victorious; it strengthens us to keep going. It gives us hope. Deann Alford’s journalistic credentials, raw honesty and love for Colombia combine to let us glimpse God’s glory in ways we would not otherwise see, in places few will ever visit. The stories you’ll want to re-tell, but mainly you’ll want to pray, knowing that peace truly is possible in your own life, in Colombia, and in every area where unrest reigns."

—Jeff Taylor, former president and CEO, Open Doors International

"Victorious takes the reader on a harrowing yet uplifting ride through decades of tragic civil war between the government of Colombia and FARC, the nation’s oldest guerrilla movement. The juxtaposition of gruesome, heartrending accounts of murder and mayhem by both sides, with marvelous accounts of Christ’s redemptive power to change even the most callous of those killers into forgiven and forgiving children of God, highlights the way He can transform even the hardest heart. This is truly a story of victory in the midst of tragedy."

—Loyd Uglow, PhD, chair, History Department, Southwestern Assemblies of God University

An inspiring account of God’s amazing redemption in very dark places. Deann has the advantage of a long-term view from decades of interactions and multiple personal histories. Out of dire and gruesome circumstances, these brave and humble followers of Jesus testify to God’s ability to save and transform anyone.

—Lucy Dawson, associate director,

Office of International Students and Visiting Scholars, Abilene Christian University

Seasoned journalist Deann Alford writes insightfully about her 30-year connection to the major players in the decades-long revolutionary rebellion in Colombia, focusing on behind-the-scenes struggles of the conflict that left 220,000 dead and 6.9 million displaced. The bilingual Deann, who has a vast array of reporting experience throughout Latin America, supplies the requisite background information to make the complicated mess understandable. Deann felt compelled by the Lord to repeatedly interview those impacted by the civil war, especially the innocent missionaries, pastors, and church workers who suffered. Multitudes of poor Colombians caught in the middle kept their faith despite hardships; they often evangelized their tormenters. In on-site reporting from prison, Deann tells the untold stories of onetime FARC guerrillas and other criminals who had no qualms about killing others before their conversion to Christ. In the process, Deann came to realize how all Christians, herself included, should have the compassion Jesus commanded for their enemies—even despised drug-trafficking murderers.

—John W. Kennedy, news editor, AG News

"For those who see the violence in Colombia as just one more hopeless tragedy in a world gone mad, Deann Alford’s riveting, carefully researched volume will come as a welcome breath of fresh air. My longtime friend and colleague knows much about this battle-scarred land and has laid her life on the line more than once to tell its stories. She demonstrates that no epitaph can be written for a country where Jesus Christ is active. Victorious shows that He is still active in redeeming not just souls, but also societies, even dark ones, for His Kingdom. Highly recommended!"

—Stan Guthrie, Editor at large for the Colson Center for Christian Worldview

Author of seven books including Victorious: Corrie ten Boom and The Hiding Place

http://stanguthrie.com

"Victorious: The Impossible Path to Peace is a journalist’s compelling account of the continuous turmoil in the nation of Colombia. It is filled with heroic stories of brave believers who have faced prison, corrupt police, guerrillas, paramilitaries, drug cartels, and terror. Yet woven through each page is evidence that God has not forgotten this torn nation. Even in Bellavista Prison, among the world’s most notorious, lives are being transformed. Ultimately, however, the theme of this book is radical forgiveness and its transformational power for healing.Your faith will be strengthened as you read that God is at work in the most unlikely of places."

—Tamara Norman, staff pastor, Glad Tidings Church, Austin, Texas

"The subtleties of religious freedom in Latin America are too often misunderstood. In this truly fascinating book that reads like a novel, Deann Alford provides a passionate account of the complex interface between organized crime and religion in this region through a series of stories about both the victims and the perpetrators of religious persecution. In spite of her strong personal and emotional involvement with persecuted Christians in Colombia, she always manages to remain realistic and objective. Victorious gives a glimpse of what happened behind the scenes during the peace talks between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas as well as a sense of the improbable events that moved the FARC leadership to sit down at the negotiation table. More generally, this book is an exploration into the factors that drive social and spiritual transformation. Highly recommended!"

—Dennis P. Petri, PhD, international director, International Institute for Religious Freedom

"After reading Victorious: The Impossible Path to Peace, I had the awesome sense that I had just met many of the 21st century heroes of faith. If Hebrews 11 were written today, these people would certainly be listed. Most are known only to God for their intense expression of faith in very adverse circumstances. Others are known by many and are visible in a wide variety of settings. However, the greatest motivating factor in their lives has nothing to do with the applause of people but rather their love for Jesus and those He came to redeem. This book will challenge your faith."

—John Troyer, pastor, Shepherd’s Christian Centre, Montney, British Columbia, Canada

"If you want to read riveting life stories never told before, then you have found the right book. Victorious: The Impossible Path to Peace inspires faith and shows how many former Latin American terrorists have found the path of peace. Deann has a passion for the details and integrity of an accurate story."

—David Witt, chief executive officer, Spirit of Martyrdom International

"Victorious by Deann Alford is a must-read for anyone interested in reality missions. Focusing on Colombia’s struggle with revolutionary groups FARC, ELN and M-19 as well as paramilitary units, the author weaves the interaction between those forces and the biblical ministry of the missionary Russell Martin Stendal and his family. Extreme care is given in showing the misery and scourge these groups imposed. With names and faces emerging on every page to testify of the rancor and devastation experienced by both the radical forces and individuals recruited in their ranks as well as citizens both small and great who were affected by kidnappings, murder, and coercion gives the book an uncanny authenticity. The narrative is one immense tale told in unfolding and uncompromised journalistic style. The reader is drawn into an understanding of how the Holy Spirit leads and protects His messengers in dangerous situations where death threats, kidnappings and prison are everyday realities. From chapter one through to the epilogue, this priceless work is a resource book for all who answer the call."

—Dr. C.R. Oliver, Oliver Evangelistic Association International

* * *

"You have heard that it was said,

‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray

for those who persecute you, that you may be children

of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise

on the evil and the good,

and sends rain on the righteous and

the unrighteous."

—Jesus

Matthew 5:43-45 (New International Version)

* * *

-1-

Lunch With the FARC

Havana, Cuba

December 2013

In the faded colonial elegance of an Avenida Quinta backyard garden, waiters move beneath shady palm fronds, linking tables, shuffling chairs.

Today’s lunch in this popular restaurant is the treat of missionary Russell Martin Stendal. Five of his guests are of the ruling elite of the FARC—Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—at war with the Colombian government for a half-century. These guerrillas are in Havana talking peace with diplomats from Colombia.

The US State Department lists the FARC as a foreign terrorist organization. The department has offered a $5 million bounty for one of Russell’s guests, lead negotiator Iván Márquez. The Cuban head of palace security himself is with Márquez, serving as his bodyguard.

I’m here as a journalist, to share a meal with the FARC and Russell Stendal, who was once their victim.

Russell has asked these waiters to prepare the table, not simply in the presence of those who once deemed him an enemy of humanity. The table is set precisely on their behalf.

* * *

In the early 1980s, this son of Bible translators was helping fishermen by using his small airplane to airlift their catches to better-paying markets, relieving their poverty through a means nobler than cultivating coca, the plant from which cocaine is made.

The final exam for a 1983 FARC commando-training workshop was abducting an American. The guerrillas snatched Russell, threatening to kill him unless somebody paid a half-million dollars for his release. While captive, Russell saw the FARC’s allure to mostly poor, uneducated peasants who believed in the group’s platform: together they would overthrow Colombia’s government, impose communism, and wipe out poverty. Guerrilla warfare would usher in prosperity and freedom and a just society. Ransom-taking and narcotrafficking financed their quest.

Those in the rebel group deeply believe they are right, that their war is right. Religion is evil, their Marxist manifesto says. God does not exist.

Nor does personal freedom. Leaders use fear to control their fighters. Dissent is not tolerated. The disobedient and would-be deserters are executed.

Life inside the FARC reflects its worldview. Indeed, any society based on this philosophy would look like a big version of this camp. FARC dogma held the guerrillas far more captive than was Russell, whom they had bound with a nylon rope stained by his blood and the blood of a guerrilla whom he shot soon after his capture. The Gs tied it in a slipknot like a dog collar (to this day neckties give him horrid headaches). While their prisoner, he wrote a manuscript about his life, faith, and time as a hostage, aptly titled Rescue the Captors.¹ Miraculously, FARC commanders let it circulate throughout the camp. And as Russell talked about God and prayed for his captors, building friendships with those guarding him, guerrillas and some commanders quietly asked him about life and faith.

To publicly question the FARC would at best invite severe reprimand, if not death. Yet in private, many of the members whispered doubts about the FARC’s violent, godless, evil philosophy.

Russell had an epiphany: I prayed and told God that I was willing to do whatever He saw fit . . . that He could do anything He wanted with me, and that I trust Him completely.

After nearly five months as a hostage, an anonymous donor paid the ransom, by then reduced to fifty-five thousand dollars. On January 3, 1984, the FARC handed him over to his brother, Chaddy.

But once freed, Russell politely wrote off US embassy advice to forever flee Colombia. He’d left the FARC on good terms. Colombia needed hope and healing following decades of nonstop conflict: the 1948-1958 La Violencia, four guerrilla factions, crooked police, corrupt military, and the self-defense paramilitaries to whom Colombia’s army often outsourced its dirtiest deeds—massacres. As Colombian society is built on friendship, Russell saw he could use his FARC connections to spread his message of love, hope, and reconciliation in Christ, sharing the good news with more guerrillas and with every warring side.

His first opportunity came through an invitation from Colombia’s most famous Roman Catholic leader. Father Rafael García-Herreros’s love for Jesus and compassion for the poor inspired the priest to build a neighborhood of affordable housing—centered on church and education—in Bogota, the capital. For eight years, Russell spoke on Father Rafael’s radio station and occasionally his television broadcast. He traveled with the priest throughout the country, speaking in mostly Roman Catholic churches. Sometimes Russell served as his driver; sometimes he spoke to guerrillas.²

Meanwhile, FARC comandantes friendly to Russell transferred between units across Colombia. Eventually half the FARC-ruled area of the country welcomed him, even allowing him to minister. Over the years, Noel Pérez, second in command of the 7th FARC Front that kidnapped Russell, crossed paths with his former hostage as Russell traveled, spoke, and distributed Bibles.

Pérez and Russell’s friendship deepened. In 2003, Pérez quietly converted to Christianity. The FARC secretariat chose Pérez as one of its twenty-nine negotiators for the Havana peace talks with Colombia’s government. In early 2013, Pérez invited Russell to the island to meet the top FARC rulers.

It’s fitting that Cuba hosts these talks. Fidel Castro’s revolution in 1959, less than a year after the end of Colombia’s decade-long La Violencia, inspired revolts against dictators across Latin America. In Colombia, the M-19 urban rebels seized the Dominican Republic embassy and the Colombian Palace of Justice. In 1981, terrorists from that group kidnapped and murdered linguist Chet Bitterman of Wycliffe Bible Translators. The Cuba-focused National Liberation Army (ELN) also kidnaps for ransom.

* * *

Today at Havana’s La Ferminia restaurant—like all of Cuba’s grand houses taken from their owners in the Revolution—Pérez is among Russell’s guests. Hours before this gathering, I’d watched the two chitchat on the porch at Russell’s rented place on Havana Bay: former captor and his ex-captive, each fifty-eight, now on the cusp of their senior years with a lot of history between them.³

Joining Noel Pérez and Iván Márquez for shish kabobs with Russell is Márquez’s common-law wife, Maritza Sánchez, herself a guerrilla and a former partner of the late FARC founder, Tirofijo. Next to him sits Jesús Santrich, blinded from glaucoma and retinitis pigmentosa, trademark red and white shawl around his shoulders. With them is Yuri Camargo, another negotiator from the central FARC command.

Accompanying Russell for Cuban-style grilled beef, chicken, and pork is his filmmaker daughter Alethia, age twenty-seven.

I’ve come as a Christian journalist connected to Colombia for three decades, here mostly to observe. I have far too many questions for them to answer over a single lunch.

In Colombia, people have long mouthed the name FARC in hushed or coded words, fearing being overheard. Emails allude to the guerrillas as Gs. Such is the terror the FARC evokes. While reporting over the years, I’ve met imprisoned and deserted Gs and an active one. Today is different.

I’m sitting among top leaders. Lead negotiator Iván Márquez is in the five-member FARC secretariat. Santrich, the FARC central command ideologue, is Márquez’s right-hand man. Maritza may be the top woman guerrilla. Then there’s Noel who had been number two of the FARC front that abducted Russell Stendal. To say that I feel on edge is an understatement.

Beyond the FARC, government security services could misinterpret tapped communications. No one wants to be flagged as a sympathizer, collaborator, or worse: a guerrilla. And FARC infiltrators are everywhere, even in Colombia’s government.

But neither Russell nor his daughter seem at all uneasy. They interact freely with these guerrilla leaders. As I witness the back-and-forth banter, clearly the leaders hold both him and Alethia in high regard.

This place of honor that the ransomed missionary pilot occupies in the presence of his former enemies has come at high cost. Now a Bible teacher, evangelist, and broadcaster whose radio transmitters beam the gospel throughout Colombia, virtually everybody in the FARC, from the machine-gun-toting comrade to the highest commanders, has heard Russell preach the tenets of Christianity. As they converse with these FARC leaders, Russell and Alethia refer to his radio sermons, which reach Havana from Colombia via faint signals. Broadcasts also stream from their Peace Force website, www.fuerzadepaz.com. The comandantes’ conversation reveals their familiarity with the messages.

* * *

In Russell’s decades of ministry, he has lost count of how many death threats he’s received, including from high-ranking FARC comandantes outside this circle. One who has tried for thirty years to kill him is Romaña, a FARC Eastern Bloc leader who coordinated four guerrilla fronts fighting to conquer Cundinamarca department, where Colombia’s capital Bogota is located. Russell’s and his family members’ names have turned up on hit lists.

Yet the missionary’s platform remains unchanged, no matter which side he’s addressing: any solution to the conflict is between the person and God, not through warfare, not through politics, not through the nation’s notoriously corrupt justice system, not through social programs that assuage symptoms without addressing the root causes of what afflicts Colombia.

All this upheaval has left the nation in shambles, desperate for hope that only Christ can bring. Without divine intervention, the loved ones of 220,000 war dead and the 6.9 million war-displaced Colombians will continue this age-old Colombian narrative of vengeance and reprisal.

Russell has become these FARC rebels’ informal counselor, their respected friend, as their friends have dwindled to nearly no one. The guerrillas have welcomed Christians whom Russell has brought to the island to pray for the group. Among them are Clayt Sonmore, age ninety-two, a founder of the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship, and Albert Luepnitz, who was eighty-eight on his first Cuba trip, a prayer warrior with a gift of healing.⁴ Another visitor has been Fernando Torres, M.D., who came to faith in Christ through Russell’s broadcasts. Torres, a pediatrician and family doctor whose patients include the country’s ruling elite, has gone with Russell on humanitarian missions to FARC camps to help the sick and wounded.

The guerrillas and their Christian friends agree on basics: they love Colombia. They hate the misery that so many of its people endure. And everyone abhors the corruption that besets every area of society. The disagreement centers on how to assuage the suffering.

Russell points out that the FARC’s historic plan to reform Colombia lacks the one element he regards as central: everybody must have a spiritual reckoning with God.

In his decades of outreach, he’s noticed the Marxist rhetoric soften in this movement that from its inception has been tightly controlled from the top. Where the Christian message was once verboten, by the early 2010s, in half of the FARC’s fronts, a guerrilla could openly profess Christianity and not be killed as a traitor to Marxism. That’s at least in part a fruit of his radio outreach having gained acceptance at the highest levels.

Russell has watched hearts gradually change, feeding his hope that peace in Colombia is attainable. Some guerrillas have taken open stands for God. The FARC’s leaders now allow all their men and women to listen to Russell’s gospel broadcasts.

After the meal, which stretches into late afternoon in the Havana restaurant, the men puff on cigars. Iván Márquez speaks of Russell, He is an apostle of peace, a person whose words create a favorable environment to advance the search for peace. He’s like a counselor. Santrich issues his pronouncement, He seems to me to be a magnificent man of truth.

* * *

Three-plus decades ago, Russell would have died had somebody not met the rebels’ cash demand for his ransom. Yet his mission has remained unchanged: reconciling all to Christ, even those comprising what the State Department terms as a foreign terrorist organization. And that reconciliation began with him.

Rescue the Captors, the first of dozens of books that Russell has written, details the FARC’s treatment of him while they held him prisoner, plus the hopeless plights from which the guerrillas themselves came: horrendous domestic abuse, poverty unimaginable in North America, orphans created because the Colombian Army or paramilitaries happened to miss killing a child or two while massacring their village. Such typical factors drove most rank-and-file guerrillas into the insurgency. While growing up among the indigenous Kogi in the 1960s as his parents translated the New Testament into the Kogi language, Russell witnessed military abuse of campesinos.

Were he one of them, he concluded way back then, he probably would take up arms against the oppressors, too.

Russell and I connected through my own long-awaited pilgrimage to Chet Bitterman’s grave. In 2008, with Russell’s two sons and barfing golden retriever, Lucy, we drove eight hours from Bogota to the Wycliffe Bible Translators’ former Lomalinda compound. Russell and his brother, Chaddy, who settled near Villavicencio and founded a machine shop and raised cattle, bought part of Wycliffe’s land. Chaddy’s tract includes the cemetery where the martyred linguist was laid to rest. Russell’s section contains his main transmitter for Garita Radio.

I’ve spent enough time with the Stendal family to attest that God really did miraculously heal and restore him after his kidnapping. Without his months as their hostage, I’m convinced he never could have reached the FARC. He has forgiven all.

But I have not.

I’ve brought my own heavy burden to this meeting with the FARC. In my quarter-century as a journalist, I’ve written dozens of articles about Colombian guerrilla groups’ crimes against Christians, ranging from extortion to murder. Many of these stories regard crimes of the FARC, typically threatening and abducting church workers, missionaries, and pastors, extorting them with offers they couldn’t refuse.

Central case in point is the vacuna, monthly fees that both leftist and rightist illegal armed groups levy against those in areas they control, supposedly vaccinating the person, family, or group from deadly consequences for nonpayment. A common vacuna is forcing churches to pay fees in exchange for being allowed to stay open. Over time, every illegal armed group, left and right alike, grew in dependence on crime—narcotics, kidnappings, and extortion—for funding. In my news reports over the decades, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia most often perpetrated the crimes.

A 2012 poll by the Colombian government-funded Historic Memory Center found that the group Colombians blame most for the country’s violence is the FARC. That same survey found that 82 percent believe guerrillas are simply criminals; only 13 percent think the rebels represent revolutionary ideals.

One of the most reprehensible tactics involved recruitment of minors, often forcibly.

Sometimes parents pulled their children from school to keep them safe from guerrillas who visited schools, snatched children, and took them into the mountains. Other recruits are grade-school-aged children, bored and curious, hungry and suffering need or abuse, or both, at home. They wander to guerrilla posts, where rebels typically use them to run errands, such as relaying messages and transporting drugs and weapons. Step two entails allowing the child to hold the guerrilla’s machine gun. Weapons emanate a powerful aura that kids find hard to resist.

They join. And like cannon fodder, they die, expendable.

Many Christians in FARC-controlled zones refuse to send their children to take part in FARC community work days. Often the children return home rejecting church teachings, and many of them join the guerrillas. Russell says the FARC’s practice of indoctrinating children is prevalent.

Within recruitment of minors is targeting of Christians, in part because they are so obedient. A July 2014 case in point involved a thirteen-year-old Christian girl recruited into the FARC. Three days later, guerrillas killed her. Charities in Colombia have established secret boarding schools for Christian children—in particular, the sons and daughters of pastors—at risk of FARC recruiting or enticement into their ranks. Another charity set up a home in Medellín for widows and children of martyred church leaders.

But by and large, where the church is strong, even amid the destitute, no one is interested in following the FARC. The church nearly always wins the competition for hearts and minds. In vast FARC-controlled regions of Colombia, high commander Mono Jojoy ordered churches shuttered and threatened pastors with death. In Puerto Lleras, a central Colombian town, the FARC closed churches for three years. In southern Guaviare department, guerrillas banned Christian meetings twenty-five years ago—not even two people singing a hymn in a home, Russell says.

Death culture still prevails throughout Colombia. A wrong committed a half-century ago can still bring revenge.

Lawless groups control huge areas that have never known institutional authority. I brought with me to Havana a July 2013 edict issued by FARC’s 32nd Front, which controls parts of southern Colombia. The forty-six point edict, titled Manual of Coexistence for the Smooth Functioning of Communities, asserts rules governing an array of activity, including curfews, price controls, mandatory work days for residents over age fifteen, and powers for communal action boards—ranging from granting permission for residents and visitors to come and go, to property transactions and mandatory crop cultivation. It banishes those with children in the police force or Colombian Army. It limits possession of cellular phones to two per family, bans phones with cameras for security reasons, and requires a registry of all incoming and outgoing calls from public telephones.

Among the forty-six points is this: Evangelism chapels will only be constructed in county seats. Another: Pastors and priests will celebrate their Masses only in churches in county seats.

Amid this conflict, for decades Russell has waged peace through his ministry, Colombia for Christ. One way is through his two airplanes. The fuselage of his 600-pound ultralight is pocked with four FARC bullet holes. The other is a 1953 four-seat Cessna 180, whose previous owner, bent on distinguishing his aircraft from those used for flying drugs, painted it pink and adorned its tail with the Pink Panther. The drawing seems eerily prophetic of the plane’s mission: the cartoon cat looking over his shoulder at Colombia’s flag, hands clasped as if praying for this blood-drenched land.

From the pilot’s seat, Russell drops care packages tied to little white parachutes as he flies over hostile areas such as guerrilla camps and coca fields. Packages contain Bibles, Christian books, and solar-powered Galcom radios locked on his radio transmissions. One channel plays secular and Christian music. The other features teaching and preaching, much of which is by Russell himself.⁵

This is how virtually every guerrilla in Colombia knows of Russell. Colombia for Christ has distributed tens of thousands of these radios throughout the nation to all sides in the civil war. Guerrillas even in the most remote camps listen to messages on his radios.

As my primary beat focused on persecution of Christians, I knew from the mid-1990s I should return to Colombia, boots on the ground, to report war and Christ’s peace. But I didn’t. I was afraid.

No, that word is too mild. I was terrified. I let the risk of being killed or kidnapped keep me away. For two decades after my first visit to Colombia in 1983, I reported whatever news I could glean via telephone, fax, and email.

In 2002, I knew the Holy Spirit was still urging me to return to Colombia. In person. I had to go. In February 2003, I finally went back.

Once in the country, all travel between cities had to be by airplane, not by inexpensive buses, because of the risk of pescas milagrosas, miracle fishing. Until the early 2000s, the FARC set up roadblocks and checked identification cards of those in each vehicle against tax rolls and documents, seeking valuable people to abduct.

But not even costly air travel ensured safety. On April 12, 1999, ELN guerrillas hijacked Avianca flight 9463 from Bucaramanga to Bogota. Among hostages held two months in the swampy jungle near the Rio Magdalena was Grace Morillo, a worker with then-Miami-based Latin America Mission and granddaughter of Catherine Morgan, pioneering Plymouth Brethren missionary to Colombia. When I brought up Grace’s case, Russell Stendal couldn’t immediately place it. He pointed out that Colombia’s guerrillas have carried out more than one hijacking.

Every kidnapping is tragic, and few end well. Among victims are